Redefining Sports Culture
Anna Enright, DNP, PCNS-BC
As the country processed Simone Biles’ withdrawal from the Olympic team final this past week, I couldn’t help but reflect on the work she is pioneering. She is not the first elite athlete to openly talk about mental health. However, her ability to work toward overcoming the “twisties” gracefully and courageously, while supporting her USA teammates is astounding. In gymnastics, the “twisties” are a dangerous phenomenon where an athlete loses the ability to physically orient themselves in space. The dangers are clear as gymnasts' disorientated aerials, twists and turns can potentially result in a devastating landing. Simone’s awareness, maturity, and character strengths were on full exhibit as she bravely recognized the risks and stepped back. In doing so, she allowed her team to succeed. In our “win at all cost” culture, Simone’s decision seems herculean. Is she paving the way to redefining our sport culture?
As an athlete, the expectation in our current sport culture is to tough it out. Not to quit. We see our athletes as superheroes. We forget they are human. We forget that most of them are very young humans!
Our culture teaches young athletes to be strong, stoic, fearless, and to mask their feelings. We want them to excel in sport and school, work hard, manage their emotions and most of all, we want them to win. Feeling lost, scared, uncertain, anxious, and worried are common experiences in athletics. Yet, in our current sports culture, we don’t talk about these emotions. On the contrary, we discourage them.
As a mom to two climbers who competed in the youth circuit and a longtime volunteer judge at local and national rock climbing competitions, I have seen the struggle our young athletes endure, first hand. The disappointments, the failures, the pressure, and fears. Data show that many athletes suffer in silence. Mental illness affects up to 35% of elite athletes and only 10% ever seek help. Our current sport culture discourages athletes from seeking help. Disclosing any problem may prevent a sponsorship or being signed onto a professional team.
Athlete’s mental health has been in the spotlight during this Pandemic year for several reasons.
The collective isolation due to closed athletic venues and postponed athletic competitions impacted athletes in all disciplines and levels. Elite athletes have been speaking out about the challenges and toll that constant training takes on mental health. More recently, the athletic community has witnessed courageous athletes step down from participating in high stakes events to take care of their mental health. Tennis superstar, Naomi Osaka, recently took a stand and withdrew from the French open.
In the last few years, there have been several consensus expert or position papers written on the topic of mental health in elite sports ideally aimed at the prevention and treatment of mental health symptoms in elite athletes. All recommended employing mental health literacy education programming with the aim of:
increasing self-management strategies,
challenging mental disorder stigma, and
increase awareness of mental health first-aid and facilitate help seeking behaviors.
Organizationally, it is important to support the mental health of coaches who are often the first line of defense when it comes to athlete wellbeing. In a small survey Hiddencrux conducted, most coaches reported needing support teaching athletes’ mental wellness skills citing the lack of time and education.
Given that rock climbing is having its Olympic debut, stakeholders need to be even more aware of these important issues. With the exposure on the world stage, the sport of rock climbing will grow even faster. The number of athletes is going to increase and the demand for competitions and stress inducing events will rise. As this generation of young athletes enter the sport of climbing, we have the opportunity to redefine the culture of athletics and revolutionize the role mental health education has in long term athletic development. We have the opportunity to help these young athletes and their support structure recognize the signs of distress; teach them how to fail; how to be kind to themselves; that it’s Ok to ask for help; to connect with the joy of sport; and how, if that joy is giving away to stress to recognize it and have a safe space to talk about it. First and foremost, our young athletes need to know that sport is what they do, not who they are.
I have found the rock climbing community to be an exceptionally supportive and caring sporting environment. I’m hopeful we can cultivate and maintain a sports culture where we have safe spaces for our young athletes to grow, learn, and attend to their mental health while in the process becoming champions of sport and more importantly in life.
